CruJones: uber humper: DssDevl: This is a great idea.
I sell and install satellite systems and you wouldn't believe how many people don't have credit cards. My company makes these people get prepaid accounts that make me no money for my work, so I have to bail on the sale.
It would surprise you how these folks all have internet and cell phones but can't make any of their other payments like rent and such, too.

Buy prepaid credit cards and carry them with you then sell the card to the customer to use to set up the account. Western Union has a prepaid.

Guess where you can find a Western Union....

Not in WalMart. They have their own money transfer. And come to think about it, I'm sure they have a prepaid card, too.

sandi_fish: No bank account or credit but internet access? Sounds like they are catering to people who make poor choices.

Have you been to a Wal-Mart? their entire business is based on people who make poor choices, this is not something new for them. Also, internet has been kind of a necessity for some time now in case you didn't notice, just because you have bad credit doesn't mean you shouldn't have email.

did walmart just invent "clicks and mortar"?

I used to use "cash" to pay for online weed orders. I'd send bills thru the mail. Isn't that how u guys do it

hobnail: Snarcoleptic_Hoosier: Why not allow customers the chance to look online and allow a shipment to the store nearest them for easy pickup? An automated database could do the same damn thing.

I'm pretty sure they do this already.

Walmart employee here confirming this

Mr. Potatoass: scottyvr6: Just go get a f*cking debit/credit card America, you lazy arses. This is just stupid.

You sound like the kind of person that I have to wait in line behind at a gas station for a debit card transaction on a 75 cent fountain soda.

As a Walmart cashier, debit is the fastest way people pay. Followed by credit, cash, and far far behind is check. DAMN IT 80 year old ladies YOU DONT HAVE TO FILL OUT THE CHECK AT ALL, you just sign the farking screen and let me run the damn check through the machine! People are in line behind you.

Mr. Potatoass: scottyvr6: Just go get a f*cking debit/credit card America, you lazy arses. This is just stupid.

You sound like the kind of person that I have to wait in line behind at a gas station for a debit card transaction on a 75 cent fountain soda.

I've never noticed that card transactions take longer than cash. If anything, in my experience, cash takes longer, especially when coins and/or change from bills is involved.

downstairs: MrFisher_84: As a Walmart cashier, debit is the fastest way people pay. Followed by credit, cash, and far far behind is check. DAMN IT 80 year old ladies YOU DONT HAVE TO FILL OUT THE CHECK AT ALL, you just sign the farking screen and let me run the damn check through the machine! People are in line behind you.

Why don't you just tell them that?

I do. They insist on doing it anyway, and sometimes they cuss me out. Or they cuss out the electronic system in general.

Liberals, progressives and MSNBC will condemn it.

Something tells me if they don't have checking/credit/debit abilities, they don't have internet access at home either.

Which makes me question how much online shopping goes on at the library.

This is actually a brilliant idea. A large number of people have gone sans credit card but still use computers.

It's especially useful to all those illegals who get paid in cash, drug dealers, and other under the table economy people. They have been pretty much shut out of the online economy.

uber humper: I find it more interesting, at the Home Depot self checkout it gives you an option to pay with PayPal.

From your phone, no less.

wildcardjack: This is actually a brilliant idea. A large number of people have gone sans credit card but still use computers.

It's especially useful to all those illegals who get paid in cash, drug dealers, and other under the table economy people. They have been pretty much shut out of the online economy.

I can't throw a rock here without hitting a store or gas station that carries prepaid Visas or Mastercards. Is that not the case in the US?

apoptotic: I can't throw a rock here without hitting a store or gas station that carries prepaid Visas or Mastercards.

Why give any of the middlemen a cut? I see something online and I want to pay for it with the cash in my wallet. Walmart is addressing this.

apoptotic: wildcardjack: This is actually a brilliant idea. A large number of people have gone sans credit card but still use computers.

It's especially useful to all those illegals who get paid in cash, drug dealers, and other under the table economy people. They have been pretty much shut out of the online economy.

I can't throw a rock here without hitting a store or gas station that carries prepaid Visas or Mastercards. Is that not the case in the US?

You can certainly get them here but they tend to have a lot of fees.

apoptotic: wildcardjack: This is actually a brilliant idea. A large number of people have gone sans credit card but still use computers.

It's especially useful to all those illegals who get paid in cash, drug dealers, and other under the table economy people. They have been pretty much shut out of the online economy.

I can't throw a rock here without hitting a store or gas station that carries prepaid Visas or Mastercards. Is that not the case in the US?

We have those too. Further, Walmart has gift cards that work the same way. This is for the sort of people who make impulse purchases online, which is why all they have is cash.

Not only do they have items online that they don't have in stores, but a lot of walmarts prices are cheaper online then they are in stores, don't know why, but that's one reason to do it this way.

sandi_fish: No bank account or credit but internet access? Sounds like they are catering to people who make poor choices.

Or catering to people who make the smart choice of a secure purchase with cash at store.

WHARRGARBL*MART

/am i doing it right?

Ugh. The ONLY grocery stores within a decent radius are Wal-Marts. We briefly had a Food Lion but their prices were triple Wal-Mart's and they went under in less than a year.

Made me very sad. The Food Lion was still better (to me) than the traffic and gas to get to a real grocery store for items like milk, eggs, etc.

For my big shopping I make the drive.

Hate Wal-Mart.

starlost: have a order at walmart day and have everyone order $100,000 worth of goods with this cash system. maybe just maybe their system won't catch the red flag it in time and they automatically make a order for 123,456 riding lawn mowers to the manufacturer. sure the order gets cancelled but the manufacturer or supplier can sue for damages. or at least for 2 days walmart won't know what real orders and what fakes it will have. maybe i'm wrong but i think it would be a mess for walmart.

Customers are still required to pay cash at the Walmart within 48 hours of placing the order, presumably before any gears in the logistical machine start rolling?

/Can go into life-long debt with a major multinational corporation buying crap from around the globe but we still can't vote in elections online?

DssDevl: This is a great idea.
I sell and install satellite systems and you wouldn't believe how many people don't have credit cards. My company makes these people get prepaid accounts that make me no money for my work, so I have to bail on the sale.
It would surprise you how these folks all have internet and cell phones but can't make any of their other payments like rent and such, too.

If only more people DIDN'T have credit cards ... Or maintained them with zero balances ...

Magorn: Snarcoleptic_Hoosier: Why not allow customers the chance to look online and allow a shipment to the store nearest them for easy pickup? An automated database could do the same damn thing.

re-invent the original Sears&Roebuck business model for the 21st century? Not a half bad idea really. Wal-Mart's two great competitive advantages are the near-ubiquity of it's stores, particularly in rural America, and its extremely clever logistics system. Leveraging that to let people buy online and then get free shipping to a Wal-mart store would let them give Amazon a serious run for their money

A good analogy. And just think; this is an even better approach because one of the main costs of S&R's model, all that high-gloss printing, is entirely unnecessary. And then there's your point about how Walmart's corporate delivery fleet negates the need for postage or shipping.

DssDevl: This is a great idea.
I sell and install satellite systems and you wouldn't believe how many people don't have credit cards. My company makes these people get prepaid accounts that make me no money for my work, so I have to bail on the sale.
It would surprise you how these folks all have internet and cell phones but can't make any of their other payments like rent and such, too.

Cell-phones in the US are pretty expense, particularly given the US telecom industry's penchant for unnecessary fee proliferation. We live in a society rife with predatory lending and service practices -on top of the ridiculous cost of living/pay ratios for everyone below the 200k mark- and we're currently in the middle of a recession caused and perpetrated by bad domestic policy maintained in the service of the very corporations sucking our citizenry dry. Given this, it doesn't surprise me at all that you'd have customers without credit card and with spotty payment histories.

the article says that you can pay with cash, but the headline says printed slips of green paper. which is it? (i'm assuming that the participating wal-marts are in the usa, where the printed currency is neither green nor paper...)

sandi_fish: No bank account or credit but internet access? Sounds like they are catering to people who make poor choices.

Dude, they shop at Wal-mart.

WalMart already has an online ordedring system that allows for the purchase of items not ordnarily stocked in stores, to be shipped (free) to a nearby store for pickup. But those purchases can only be made with plastic.

This new system opens up a whole new selection of WalMart items to be purchased by customers that have bad credit and no plastic.

Time will tell, good marketing will help, if this works out as a good idea.

proteus_b: the article says that you can pay with cash, but the headline says printed slips of green paper. which is it? (i'm assuming that the participating wal-marts are in the usa, where the printed currency is neither green nor paper...)

oh aren't you clever

beezeltown: Walmart may well have the largest single concentration of "unbankable" customers, i.e. people who can't open a bank account/get a credit card, etc. Offering additional online options for this significant market segment is a pretty good idea, really.

Since these unbankable customers are probably cashing their checks at Walmart also they can pre buy their items and take the amount out of their check.

Clever, but sad. Seems like we have a large number of lower income people shopping at Walmart, who are unbankable. And you just know what most "unbankable" people are going to be getting reamed by check cashing joints on a regular basis, most out of ignorance or laziness. Not my problem, I guess, but it's sad.

Wal Mart. Save your money. for us and we'll Live better.

Grables'Daughter: This idea I apparently came from Wal-Mart's "Missing the Entire Point" department.

FTFY

Yeah, Walmart has a huge selection that is "online only" that's way bigger than what they actually sell in physical stores.

I believe Site-to-Store requires that you pay when you place the order. Never used it myself.

The people that would benefit from this new thing are those that are unwilling or unable to make an electronic payment online. ie.....my 72yo mother who thinks her banking info will certainly be stolen if she were to use her bank card or electronic check online.

I am going to, despite the sh*tstream of sneers and harrumphs sure to ensue, going to encourage all of you to support local merchants, restaurants, grocers, repair shops, retail establishments and service firms as much as possible. You'll thank me in ten years.

You can certainly tell who is married here and who is not. Cash is the only way to hide purchases from your spouse.

bunner: I am going to, despite the sh*tstream of sneers and harrumphs sure to ensue, going to encourage all of you to support local merchants, restaurants, grocers, repair shops, retail establishments and service firms as much as possible. You'll thank me in ten years.

It's called Vermont.

vudukungfu: bunner: I am going to, despite the sh*tstream of sneers and harrumphs sure to ensue, going to encourage all of you to support local merchants, restaurants, grocers, repair shops, retail establishments and service firms as much as possible. You'll thank me in ten years.

It's called Vermont.

Vermont is portable. I can prove it.( -› )

CruJones: BSABSVR: CruJones: It's not site to store, they ship it to your house.

Right, it's even more difficult than site-to-store, as I'm going to the store, giving them money and then waiting for my stuff to be delivered to my house.

These are people used to going everywhere to pay in cash. The power company, phone company, cable, etc. so stopping by a Walmart (where you can sometimes also pay those other bills, btw) is not much extra hassle.

Actually, they can pay those utility bills at the Walmart service desk for a small fee - I think it's 89¢. A good bit less than the $2.50 my electric company charges for pay online.

uber humper:

Not in WalMart. They have their own money transfer. And come to think about it, I'm sure they have a prepaid card, too.

They have a prepaid card

So...

?

/sears did it first

this really is a brilliant idea for walmart. i know tons of people who don't have bank accounts, many of my coworkers don't. they cash their paycheck every week (at walmart) and then pay all their bills in cash. some of them are young and stupid, some of them don't believe in banks, and some of them just live paycheck to paycheck. i'll mention to them about buying stuff online and they say "can't do that, i don't have a credit card." and they know that buying online is cheaper in most cases than buying in stores, even things like dvds might be $15 at walmart but $10 on amazon. even if they don't have the internet (even though almost everyone does) they can always use the computers at work, at the library, at a friend's house. so this is a brilliant way for walmart to get business from people who might not spend that money otherwise.

and to the dozens of people in this thread who have terrible reading comprehension skills:

WALMART SHIPS THE ITEMS TO YOUR HOUSE. YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO BACK TO THE STORE TO PICK THEM UP.